Reiver was actually the one who originally put me onto Townsends. And now he's shared a few more of his favourite cooking channels. One of which is Max Miller's Tasting History. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of the videos I've watched on his channel, but Reiver has his cookbook and had pointed out that we had all the bits for this chicken recipe. And, unlike some of his other recipes, he actually seems to have a reasonable source for this one and hasn't been overly... "creative" in his interpretation of it.
This was quite a surprising recipe. It honestly didn't really grab me at first. It looked unusual, but not that exciting. But, I have to say, this turned out very nice in the end! I don't think it was quite a favourite for me, but it was nice.
I never would have thought of combining red wine and fish sauce, but the combination works surprisingly well! And the caraway, black pepper, celery, and asafetida is a somewhat bewildering -- but not unpleasant -- way to complete the flavours.
I think I might put somewhat less wine next time. I do feel like using a full cup was a bit heavy-handed and possibly excessive for a recipe that calls for "seasoning" with wine. But otherwise, I really can't complain or suggest any changes or alterations. This was actually quite lovely!
We served our Parthian chicken over a bit of saffron rice with a slice of buttered rye bread and some silverbeet gratin on the side. This turns out to have been an excellent (and fairly thematically appropriate) combination. Would definitely recommend!
Parthian Chicken: Open the chicken and quarter. Pound pepper, lovage, a little caraway, moisten with garum, season with wine. Arrange the chicken in an earthen dish and put the seasoning on top. Dissolve silpuium in warm water, and put it with the chicken and cook. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.
-- Apicus, De re coquinaria
Pullum Parthicum
Slightly adapted from Tasting History by Max Miller
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (~1.5kg)1
- 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp. fresh lovage or 1/4 c. celery leaves2
- 1/2 Tbsp. black peppercorns, ground
- 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds, ground
- 1/2 c. dry red wine
- 3/4 tsp. ground asafetida
- 1/4 c. warm water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
- Quarter the chicken and place the pieces, skin-side-up, in a baking dish.
- Combine the fish sauce, lovage (or celery), pepper, and caraway and mix well.
- Stir in the wine.
- Pour this mixture over the chicken. Try to distribute the spices as evenly as possible and press them into the chicken skin a little.
- Stir the asafetia into the water and pour it over the chicken as well.
- Roast at 230°C (450°F) until chicken is cooked through and meat registers ~74°C/165°F (~45 minutes).
- Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve drizzled with the sauce and extra black pepper.
1 Honestly, any skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces should work reasonably well for this. I actually ended up using a bunch of thighs for my rendition. Back
2 I used both the leaves and the ribs of the celery for my rendition and liked that quite a lot. I only used one rib this time around, but Reiver and I agreed that a bit more would have been even better. Personally, I would recommend 1/4 c. of leaves + 2 ribs of celery if going that route. Back